It was much to my pleasure that the Postman brought, along with this month’s issue of Cat Fancy (thanks, Annie), my Board Game Geek Secret Santa Gift.
It was wrapped, and, maybe, I should have waited until at least Christmas Eve but my God I was dying to know what it was so I could waste more money on other games. Lo, and Behold my Santa and her elves chose Troyes for me! (What the hell, picture quality? Were these taken in the 1970’s?)
Troyes has a theme nearly identical to Caylus: building up a cathedral in France in the 13th (through 17th) century. However, the mechanics are much different (I mean, there are dice) and the win conditions change with every game—well, the win condition is victory points but there are victory point multipliers that are secretly dealt out to every player and affect every player. Whacky!
Anyway, I set-up the game for a little bit of a play through and this certainly comes across as a game that will only give up its secrets after repeated plays. It has a wide-open decision space and many paths to victory so let’s play it right away.
